"may i use the telephone?"

one request which is rather unheard of these days is "may i use the telephone?" or "can i borrow the phone?" to the latter, you should respond, " you may not but you can use it if you need to." the telephone referred to here is the fixed line house or business phone.

in this age when practically everyone is instantly contactable via the mobile phone, the need to use someone's else, especially the house phone, is almost non-existent. in my home, each of us subscribed to at least one mobile line in addition to the one fixed line. in fact, my daughters have two lines each, an optus line and a three line. we also have a stand-by line which is used when any of my daughters is back from australia.

in those kampong days, the provision shop owners were one of the very few who had a phone installed in his residence. as a regular customer or a good neighbour, you might 'borrow' his number so that you could be contacted if there was an emergency or if there was some urgent matter that needed your attention.

when a call came, which happened once in a blue moon, the provision shop owner would gave a shout down the rows of houses and we would hurry to the provision shop to take it. at the end of it, we would thank the shopkeeper profusely and feel obliged to continue patronising the shop.

and if you needed to use his phone to make a call, you would politely sought his permission and you would remember to keep your conversation short and sweet.

i remember an instance when i went with my neighbour to make a call to his primary school teacher. as it was his first time using the phone, he excitedly placed the mouthpiece to his ear. it took him so time to realise that he had been holding the handset the wrong way.

over time, when request to use the phone became too many, the shopkeeper got wise and decided to collect ten cents each time someone made a call from his phone. this could be the idea that led to the birth of the coin-a-phone.